As Ringleader in ’81 Brink’s Robbery Goes Free, a Plea for Its Getaway Driver

For eccentric paths followed by the justice system, few moments can surpass the events of this week.

On Tuesday, nearly every living president of the New York City bar association signed a plea for clemency on behalf of Judith Clark, who drove a getaway car as part of a murderous raid on a Brink’s armored car in 1981 in Nanuet, N.Y. Prison officials have said Ms. Clark had undergone an extraordinary transformation during nearly 35 years in prison, but she is not eligible to be considered for parole until 2056, when she would be 107 years old.

By contrast, the man who was the ringleader of that same robbery and another in the Bronx, is due to be released on Wednesday from a federal prison in California, exactly 30 years after he was captured.

That man, Mutulu Shakur, the stepfather of the rapper Tupac Shakur, was sentenced in 1988 to 60 years with a federal judge’s strong recommendation — but not a requirement — “that no parole consideration be given until the maximum sentence has been served.”

The same judge, Charles S. Haight Jr., refused to modify his sentence in 2014, but Mr. Shakur convinced federal parole authorities that he should be released after serving 30 years. That was possible under the laws in effect at the time of his sentencing.

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Judith Clark being taken into custody on Oct. 21, 1981.CreditDavid Handschuh/Associated Press

Mr. Shakur was described at his federal trial as the leader of a gang of revolutionaries who robbed armored cars, killing guards in the Bronx and Nanuet, as well as two police officers in Nyack. He was also convicted of leading the escape of Joanne D. Chesimard from a New Jersey prison where she was being held for the murder of a state trooper. In prison, prosecutors said, Mr. Shakur had “a record of being transferred from facility to facility as a problem inmate.”

Word of his pending release stunned Kerri Martin Bartlett, a former assistant United States attorney who had helped prosecute Mr. Shakur.

“I never thought he would be released,” Ms. Martin Bartlett said. “I thought he would spend his entire natural life in prison.”

Federal prison officials did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

Mr. Shakur, who was a fugitive for five years after the Rockland County robbery and killings, was arrested on Feb. 11, 1986, and prosecuted under federal laws.

Ms. Clark was arrested in Nyack, near the scene of the Nanuet robbery in 1981, and was tried in state court, where she presented herself as an unrepentant radical who refused to recognize the legitimacy of the court. She was sentenced to a minimum of 75 years to life. After planning an escape, she spent two years in solitary confinement. By all accounts, she emerged a changed person, and led educational programs, a prenatal center for inmates, and trains dogs as guides for the blind, explosive-detection dogs, and service dogs for disabled veterans. Ms. Clark received strong endorsements from a former superintendent of the prison where she has been held. A former state parole commissioner has said that he has never seen a more deserving candidate. She has expressed remorse.

Even so, she cannot be considered for parole until she has served 75 years, unless a governor grants clemency that would allow her to apply early. She has been turned down repeatedly.

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Ms. Clark in 2014.

“This woman did a terrible thing,” said Michael A. Cardozo, who served as New York City’s corporation counsel for 12 years. “And she has changed.”

Mr. Cardozo, who is also a former president of the city bar, organized the clemency plea by 13 former presidents after being contacted by Ms. Clark’s current lawyer, Steve Zeidman. “Every living past president signed it, except one who has served as a prosecutor and had a conflict,” Mr. Cardozo said.

The people killed during the robberies were two police officers, Waverly Brown and Edward O’Grady, and two Brink’s guards, Peter Paige and William Moroney. Relatives of those killed or maimed have opposed clemency for Ms. Clark, a position for which Mr. Cardozo said he had sympathy.

“It’s a horrible, horrible thing that this woman did,” Mr. Cardozo said. “You need deterrence. What does that mean? Lock them up forever? What purpose is to be served by that?”

Last fall, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said he wanted to expand opportunities for parole and clemency after years in which many governors had curtailed use of those powers. The case of Ms. Clark remains raw, emotionally and politically. She and another man, David Gilbert, are the only two of the gang members who will remain in prison after the release of Mr. Shakur.

Ms. Clark’s lawyer said that if Ms. Clark’s sentence of 75 to life is not modified, it ought to be called what it is: “‘We sentence you to death in prison.’”

Correction:Feb. 12, 2016

The About New York column on Wednesday about the different treatments of two of the defendants convicted in the 1981 Brink’s robbery misidentified the location where the robbery took place. It was in Nanuet, N.Y., not Nyack. The mistake was repeated in a correction in this space on Thursday.

Correction:Feb. 16, 2016

The About New York column on Wednesday, about the different treatments of two of the defendants convicted in the 1981 Brink’s robbery in Nyack, N.Y., misspelled the surname of a lawyer for Judith Clark, a getaway driver, in some editions. He is Steve Zeidman, not Zeiden. Because of an editing error, the article also misstated the given name for one of the two Brink’s drivers killed in the 1981 robberies in some editions. He was Peter Paige, not Paul.